The present invention relates to an armrest structure for a vehicle in which an armrest is disposed so as to protrude and extend toward a passenger from an inside wall of a vehicle compartment.
Generally, the armrest of the vehicle protrudes from the inside wall of the vehicle compartment toward an inside of the vehicle compartment, and it has sufficient rigidity to sustain a load applied thereto in a vertical direction because a passenger put its armrest on the armrest.
It has been required that such armrest has its structure that would not give an improper impact to the passenger during a side collision of the vehicle. Thus, conventionally, some structures to absorb such impact of the armrest have been invented.
In one of conventional armrest structures for the vehicle illustrated in FIG. 24 (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-46520), a boss 684 for attaching an armrest lower 683 is fixed to a door trim 681 by a screw 682, and there is provided an armrest upper 685 above the armrest lower 683. Further, there are provided ribs 687, 688 respectively on an upper face of a horizontal piece 686 of the armrest lower 683 and a lower face of an armrest portion of the armrest upper 685, and slant faces 687a, 688a formed at each facing portion of these ribs 687, 688 are contacted to each other.
The armrest, whose normal state is illustrated in FIG. 24, absorbs the impact load when the side-collision load is applied to the vehicle in such a manner that the slant face 688a of the rib 687 of the armrest upper 685 slides along the slant face 687a of the rib 687 of the armrest lower 683, and thus the armrest upper 685 pops up and deform, as illustrated in FIGS. 24 and 25.
The above-described conventional structure, however, had a problem of a poor appearance from the inside of a vehicle compartment. Namely, as illustrated in FIG. 24, a lower end portion at the side of vehicle compartment of the armrest upper 685 hangs over an upper end portion at the side of the vehicle compartment of the armrest lower 683, thereby providing a difference in level between them (see an arrow α portion).
Further, at least the horizontal potion 686 remains in the same shape as that in its normal state as illustrated in FIG. 25 at the time of its impact load absorption during the side vehicle collision. Accordingly, there was a problem that a sufficient load absorption could not be obtained.
In addition, since the armrest is divided into two parts by respective slant faces 688a, 687a in its normal state as shown in FIG. 24, there was a problem that the armrest could not provide sufficient rigidity with respect to a load occurring in a vertical direction.
Meanwhile, in another armrest structure for a vehicle illustrated in FIG. 26 (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-46521), a boss 695 for attaching an armrest lower 694 is fixed by a screw 693 provided in an attaching hole 692 of a door trim 691, and a boss 100 for attaching an armrest upper 699 is fixed by a clip 697 and a screw 698.
In this conventional armrest structure for the vehicle of FIG. 26, the impact load, when the side-collision load is applied to the vehicle, is absorbed in the following manner. Namely, according to a contact of the passenger and the armrest 694 due to the vehicle collision, the boss 695 is moved from an elongate hole portion to a large hole portion of the attaching hole 692, so that the boss 695 itself deforms such that its base portion (at an vehicle inside) moves forward and a head portion (at a vehicle outside) of the screw 693 moves backward. This allows the armrest lower 694 to deform resiliently and/or break, thereby absorbing the impact load.
The above-described conventional structure, however, had the same problem of poor appearance from the inside of the vehicle compartment as the above. Because, as illustrated in FIG. 26, a lower end portion at the side of vehicle compartment of the armrest upper 699 hangs over an upper end portion at the side of the vehicle compartment of the armrest lower 694, thereby providing a difference in level between them (see an arrow β portion). Additionally, since at least the horizontal potion 696 remains in the same shape as that in its normal state as illustrated in FIG. 26 at the time of its impact load absorption during the side vehicle collision, there was a problem that a sufficient load absorption could not be obtained.